Your guide to the world of fine wine and champagne

98 point Syrah, £25 per bottle

If told you that I’d just got hold of a 98 point scoring, Gold medal winning, five stars rated Syrah which was lauded as one of the top 25 red wines in the world by Decanter and cost £25 per bottle, you’d call me a liar.

Well, I’m not.

I find it hard to contain my excitement when I discover a wine I really, really love, and Vidal’s 2014 Legacy Series Syrah is one of them.

Gimblett Gravels

When we sat down for a tasting with their down to earth winemaker, Hugh, the other week, the first thing that crossed my mind was ‘great, another fruit driven, immediately pleasurable but otherwise depth-less, structure-less and gut-less Syrah’.

How wrong was I.

This feels like New Zealand has come of age. Purity of fruit, structure driven and with incredible concentration. I really cannot overstate the pedigree here, and would draw many comparisons to great Hermitage, if I didn’t feel they were so exhausted and reductive

Original photo of Vidal Winery and truck

The only one caveat is you’ll have to wait until November for it to arrive, but we simply had to get this on pre-order, just to secure a few of the miniscule 500 case production.